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Aug 11, 2019

The Gardener and His Garden

Passage: Matthew 13:1-23

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: The Parables of Jesus

Category: Grace Brevard

The Gospel will always get a response: rejection; partial acceptance; temporary acceptance; wholehearted submission, leading to Spirit empowered Gospel fruitfulness...and all of these responses can be found within my own heart.

Order of Worship

PRELUDE:  Highlands (Song of Ascent) 

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 1:1-3 & 7:17

MUSIC:

READING: John 15:4-5,9,11

PRAYER: The Love of Jesus (from The Valley of Vision)

ALL: O great God, sender of Christ.

Help us to approach Thee with deepest reverence,

Thou art beyond the grasp of our understanding,

but not beyond that of Your love.

Let the mighty tide of Your good news;

cover the rocks of our sin and care;

Make us fruitful by Your living Word.

Continually transforming our lives with the beauty of Christ.

 O Divine Spirit work in us the rest of the Gospel

Compel us in gratitude towards holiness and good works.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

MESSAGE: The Gardener and His Garden

CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

BENEDICTION: Ephesians 3:20-21 

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Ezekiel 36:25 
  • Matthew 12:33
  • James 2:16-18
  • Isaiah 55:11
  • Romans 1:18
  • Matthew 19:21
  • Luke 6:24
  • James 2:16-18
  • John 10:10
  • Proverbs 20:12
  • Isaiah 55:6-13
  • Matthew 4:1-11
  • Acts 5:17-42
  • Ephesians 3:14-19
  • James 1:19-25
  • Galatians 5:22-25

MEDIA:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Jesus says that the “seed” (v.4) is “the word of the Kingdom” (v. 19). What is that? In other words, what is the Gospel?
  2. Why and how is it that everybody has some sort of response to the Gospel?
    1. Hard Hearts (Rejecting the Gospel):
      1. Why would some outright reject the Gospel?
      2. What parts of the Gospel do I tend to reject?
      3. What does that look like in my real life?
    2. Shallow Hearts (Withering under trials):
      1. How can being dependent on how my faith makes me feel be a problem? Has this been true for you?
      2. Why would trials pull me away from Jesus?
      3. How has this happened in my life
    3. Distracted Hearts (Fruitless in temptations):
      1. What things entice me from being fully given over to Jesus? (In other words, what things do I functionally see as more beautiful or more fulfilling?)
      2. How does this keep me from Gospel fruit?
    4. Fertile and Fruitful Hearts (Faithful and Dependent):
      1. What is gospel fruitfulness?
      2. How can seeing Jesus as more beautiful lead to making you fruitful?
      3. What has made this fruitfulness possible, even secured, is that Jesus himself was rejected by the Father instead of us, and His fruitfulness is us, his brothers and sister.

QUOTES:

  • “Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.” - Thomas Merton
  • “Let not thy Word, O Lord, become a judgment on us, That we hear it and do it not, That we know it and love it not, That we believe it and obey it not.” - Thomas a Kempis
  • “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” - D.A. Carson 
  • “I understand in the past there have been many heretical movements, and we still need to maintain sound doctrine in terms of a good understanding of how God works and operates. But I think our real doctrine is that doctrine that is born out in our character. I think you can profess the Apostles' Creed until Jesus returns, but if you don't love somebody you never were a Christian.” - Rich Mullins

BOOKS / ARTICLES / DVDS

SERMONS / TALKS: 

Suffering That Crushes Faith by John Piper

Mark 4:17

The Sower on Hearing by Timothy J. Keller

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Profitable Hearers of the Word by Jonathan Edwards

Matthew 13:3